Civil society groups welcome cancellation of Slovak D1 motorway PPP

03.09.2010

Friends of the Earth CEPA (Slovakia) and CEE Bankwatch Network applaud today's cancellation [1] of the 9 billion euros public-private partnership (PPP) for the first phase of the D1 motorway in Slovakia and urged the new government to change the project's routing to avoid damaging the Mala Fatra and Velka Fatra National Parks.

The news comes as new Slovak transport minister Jan Figel yesterday refused to extend the deadline for the financial close for the project, which had been delayed by several months by uncertainty over whether the European Investment Bank (EIB) would be able to participate.

"Cancelling this extremely expensive PPP will bring great savings to Slovakia's public finances and opens up the opportunity for choosing the less environmentally damaging tunnel variant on the controversial Turany-Hubova section" said Lucia Lackovicova of Friends of the Earth CEPA.

After official complaints from NGOs were lodged regarding the damage that the chosen route would cause to the national parks, the European Commission opened an investigation into whether the biodiversity impact assessment of the project was carried out adequately, an inquiry that is still ongoing. Also prompted by NGO complaints, the EIB set further conditions for the Slovak government, which remained unfulfilled.

Meanwhile the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved the project without even waiting for the results of the EC's investigation, a move that is being challenged by Friends of the Earth CEPA through the EBRD's internal complaints mechanism.

"Neither the EIB nor the EBRD did their homework properly during the original project appraisal, so it was the task of civil society to raise the alarm," said Roman Havlicek of Friends of the Earth CEPA. "Without the EC taking up the case and the national authorities cancelling the project for financial reasons, both our public finances and our biodiversity would be in a sorry state. We now ask the government to follow up one wise decision with another and change the route of the motorway to the less damaging tunnel variant."